09-04-2021, 10:07 AM
Just a reminder on how dangerous COVID-19 is. It is doing great harm to the Iranian elites.
(Nasty fellow, and I would never miss him).
Sayyid Hassan Aghaee Firouzabadi (Persian: حسن فيروزآبادی; 3 February 1951 – 3 September 2021) was an Iranian ophthalmologist, military officer and a member of the Expediency Discernment Council.[5]
He served as the Chief-of-Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces –the most senior military authority in Iran– from 1989 to 2016.[6] After that, he was a senior military advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran.[7]
Firouzabadi was born in the town of Malabad, in Mashhad, Iran to religious parents who came from Yazd.[8] He studied at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, graduating in 1980, one year after the Iranian Revolution.[9] He then took part in the Iran–Iraq War and rose in prominence. He was in charge of industrial war engineering and the committee for the construction of surface-to-surface missiles. After the end of the war on October 25, 1989, Ali Khamenei appointed him head of the General Staff.[9]
Firouzabadi expressed anti-American sentiment, rejecting a letter sent to him by the US Congress and said that "the scourge of Americans were a
Firouzabadi was a supporter of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ideology and called on the Higher National Defense University to add to his ideology.[12] Defending the continuation of Ahmadinejad's presidency, he also said in a speech that provoked criticism from most of the presidential candidates: Now some believe that the distance that groups of politicians have created between the government and the people has been successful and has been able to attract the attention of the people; Therefore, in this presidential election, they can nominate a new presidential candidate and end the issue of Ahmadinejad; But this does not happen, they make mistakes. He further criticized former president Mohammad Khatami.[13] However, towards the end of Ahmadinejad's presidency, he came critical of his positions.[14][15]
Firouzabadi had no military experience before he was appointed the chief-of-staff, neither in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) nor the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Artesh), and goes by the title Basiji.[16] On 17 April 1995, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei granted him the rank of major general, the highest military rank practically available in Iran.[17] According to a report published by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, he was credited with "husbanding the IRGC from a war-ravaged organization to a hybrid conventional-asymmetric military force overshadowing the still-lagging Artesh.[18] He also oversaw a growing military industry that produced a wide range of products amid international sanctions, from ammunition to space rockets".[6]
Following the death of Kavous Seyed-Emami in custody in 2018, Firouzabadi claimed that “Several years ago, some individuals came to Iran... In their possessions were a variety of reptile desert species like lizards, chameleons... We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves and that they were nuclear spies who wanted to find out where inside the Islamic Republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities”. Several scientists dismissed his remarks as absurd.[19][20]
In October 2011, he was banned from entering the European Union for alleged violation of human rights.[21]
Firouzabadi died on 3 September 2021 at the age of 70, from COVID-19, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran.[22]
(Nasty fellow, and I would never miss him).
Sayyid Hassan Aghaee Firouzabadi (Persian: حسن فيروزآبادی; 3 February 1951 – 3 September 2021) was an Iranian ophthalmologist, military officer and a member of the Expediency Discernment Council.[5]
He served as the Chief-of-Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces –the most senior military authority in Iran– from 1989 to 2016.[6] After that, he was a senior military advisor to the Supreme Leader of Iran.[7]
Firouzabadi was born in the town of Malabad, in Mashhad, Iran to religious parents who came from Yazd.[8] He studied at the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, graduating in 1980, one year after the Iranian Revolution.[9] He then took part in the Iran–Iraq War and rose in prominence. He was in charge of industrial war engineering and the committee for the construction of surface-to-surface missiles. After the end of the war on October 25, 1989, Ali Khamenei appointed him head of the General Staff.[9]
Firouzabadi expressed anti-American sentiment, rejecting a letter sent to him by the US Congress and said that "the scourge of Americans were a
Firouzabadi was a supporter of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ideology and called on the Higher National Defense University to add to his ideology.[12] Defending the continuation of Ahmadinejad's presidency, he also said in a speech that provoked criticism from most of the presidential candidates: Now some believe that the distance that groups of politicians have created between the government and the people has been successful and has been able to attract the attention of the people; Therefore, in this presidential election, they can nominate a new presidential candidate and end the issue of Ahmadinejad; But this does not happen, they make mistakes. He further criticized former president Mohammad Khatami.[13] However, towards the end of Ahmadinejad's presidency, he came critical of his positions.[14][15]
Firouzabadi had no military experience before he was appointed the chief-of-staff, neither in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) nor the Islamic Republic of Iran Army (Artesh), and goes by the title Basiji.[16] On 17 April 1995, the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei granted him the rank of major general, the highest military rank practically available in Iran.[17] According to a report published by The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, he was credited with "husbanding the IRGC from a war-ravaged organization to a hybrid conventional-asymmetric military force overshadowing the still-lagging Artesh.[18] He also oversaw a growing military industry that produced a wide range of products amid international sanctions, from ammunition to space rockets".[6]
Following the death of Kavous Seyed-Emami in custody in 2018, Firouzabadi claimed that “Several years ago, some individuals came to Iran... In their possessions were a variety of reptile desert species like lizards, chameleons... We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves and that they were nuclear spies who wanted to find out where inside the Islamic Republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities”. Several scientists dismissed his remarks as absurd.[19][20]
In October 2011, he was banned from entering the European Union for alleged violation of human rights.[21]
Firouzabadi died on 3 September 2021 at the age of 70, from COVID-19, amid the COVID-19 pandemic in Iran.[22]
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.